Megaman Zero: Project Ezekiel
by Squall Lonerise
Summary: The next chapter in the saga of Zero's new life, as an autonomous soldier of the Reploid Resistance. He will face old enemies, new enemies....and, he will meet members of a hidden organization that is determined to complete Project Ezekiel (Please Read
1. Nightmare

(I do not own Megaman Zero...and I owe credit to the concept of Project Ezekiel to an unnamed group........you guys know who you are!)

Chapter 1

Nightmare

"ZERO!" a voice echoed in his head.

"ZEEEERROOOO!!!!!" It called again, more insistent this time.

He looked around his surroundings, a grassy field, with rolling hills and covered in wildflowers of every conceivable color.

He saw Dr. Ciel running urgently toward him. "ZERO!" She called.

"What is it?" he asked. "Something has happened! Look up there!" She said, pointing to the sky. He looked up, and saw the sky burning from horizon to horizon. Suddenly, the grass and flowers caught fire, as did his hair, but he ignored this, focused on Ciel, and the horrible visage of her, wreathed in flame. He rushed to aid her, but was too late, and the next thing he saw was the wind scattering her ashes into the now smoke filled sky.....

"GAH!"

Zero bolted upright, hitting his head on the bunk above him, awakening the Reploid above his bunk.

The Reploid looked around the side of the bed, down at him and looking at him from an upside down angle. "Nightmare?" the Reploid asked. Zero just looked at him for a second, then rolled out of his bed, and ran out the door. The Reploid just shrugged and fell asleep again.

As soon as Zero left the room, he began running, where, he did not care....just as long as it was outside he was going.

He ran past old Albert, who didn't notice. He almost ran into Alouet, but dodged her deftly in his mad dash to get outside.

Finally getting outside, he ran to a place no one had really ever bothered to go to, somewhere that he had made into a little place for him to be alone.

He fell to the ground and found that he was shaking horribly, from the shock of seeing Ciel die in that way, more than anything else. He thought about why he was so shaken by this particular nightmare, and not the other ones, where a mad Reploid that was bald and had blue, pupilless eyes, and wore a black cape while trying to kill him with a beam saber didnt bother him this way.

Then he knew why........

He held onto this thought, first terrified by the implications of it, then slowly likeing it more and more, until he realized that he would have to do something about it in the morning....he fell asleep right there, leaning against a tree, cherishing this one thought......


	2. A newcomer, and an old friend

(I do not own MMZ, and I owe credit for Project Ezekiel to the unnamed organisation........)

Chapter 2

A newcomer, and an old friend

(note: indicates thoughts, indicates thoughts that are intruding on the hearers mind)

"Zero?" a voice echoed in his mind....not again....

"looks like he's asleep...." The voice rang again...this time very clear, and from outside of his head...that's a relief, not that hellish nightmare again....wait...is that Ciel?

Zero awoke, bolting upright and startling Dr. Ciel. "Good morning, Zero. Did you sleep well?" She asked him. "No.....I had a nightmare." Zero said. why am I opening up like this?!

"hm?" Ciel looked around a second.....before turning to face him again. "...a nightmare?" she asked.

"Yes." I ALREADY SAID THAT!

"I know that, silly!" she said, teasingly. Zero grew suspicious then....".......hn" he said simply and crossing his arms to look serious, imitating a character he saw in an anime that Ciel showed him, the character was named Heero. "you alright? You really took off like a beam shot last night. You even scarred little Alouet nearly out of her metal hide when you vaulted boldly over her. You have never done anything like that before." Ciel said to him, getting suspicious herself....

she is trying to figure me out...isn't she? Well, I'm just going to surprise her....

"Ciel? I have to tell you something." Zero said to her.

is he going to say what I think he is? a soft voice rang quietly in his mind, like a gentile velvet breeze. what was THAT!?

"What was what? Zero? Did you say something?" Ceil asked him. "Hmmm......I should have known...." He said, locking eyes with her. "you, you're a-" he got out before the rockface beside Zero exploded.

Zero grabbed Ciel and shielded her from the blast, the heat searing at his back and burning some of his hair away. ZERO!! a voice screeched in his head, like the hammer blow of a Colony Drop. "GAH!" he exclaimed. The next few seconds seemed to take forever in Zero's mind. Things slowed to a crawl, and he turned to see a rocket coming right at his body.

He dropped Ciel, her body falling slowly, and he spun his lower half on his right heel, brought his left leg up and kicked the rocket away just as it got close. It flew off, back at the launcher it originated from, and detonated. He reached down and caught Ciel as she came within inches from the ground.

Suddenly, a blue head, with a red mono-eye, rise up to face him. He jabbed a straightened hand into it, shattering the eye, as he drove his hand into its head, before drawing it back out and holding several vital circuits in his hand that he had removed from it by force. It fell to the ground, deactive before it even began to fall. "X-drones." He said simply. "The enemy?" a voice said, from his right. Zero spun about and put himself in front of Ciel, aiming his Buster Gun at the source of the voice. What he saw was a white and blue Reploid, a human-replication type, with a blue V shaped crest on his head, that swept up and back, and piercing green eyes. He held a beam rifle, but set it down beside him as a gesture of trust. "I came to join the resistance." He said calmly, before introducing himself. "I'm Zeta...hey, Axl.....better get over here, and keep your weps down too.....looks like the welcome wagon is pissed." The new Reploid said to someone off to one side, behind the rock wall. "Stay back!" Zero warned, somehow knowing of another attack.

He spun about and blocked a sniper's beam shot with his beam saber, the beam simply absorbing into the blade and changing the color for a moment. He saw Zeta grab his rifle and before Zero could turn to face him, Zeta had unloaded several rounds in the direction of...

....the enemy sniper. WHAT!?

He heard a faint, far away scream, and saw a human fall from his perch in a tree. Zero turned to glare at Zeta, as Ciel looked at the fallen man, then Zeta in shock. That's a violation of the three laws! Zero heard ring in his head, just s Ciel said the exact same words, with the exact same tone and pitch, and the exact same emotion in them. He saw her raise a Buster Gun she seemed to have kept secret, a secret she had kept from them all. "Don't worry...I just stunned 'im." Zeta said. He turned to the unseen Reploid next to him. "Axl, go and get him....if you see any drones, take 'em out, if you see Humans, just leave him, they will take care of him, otherwise, bring him here." Zeta said. "Roger!" a familiar voice said.

A navy blue and grey Reploid, also a human-replication type, sped down the rock face, toward the source of the attack.

Several seconds of violent fighting sounds passed, then silence....then....

The Reploid returned, carrying a human male in his arms. "I already checked him for any trackers or anything else like that, he's clean." The Reploid said. "Oh...Hey Zero!" The Reploid said excidedly, as he waved at Zero, dropping the man in the process.

"hm...." Zero crossed his arms. "Zero....I see Axl remembers you..." Zeta said. "What?" Zero said....

He looked at Axl, trying to remember who he was, or is.....and couldn't place a face to the name.

"I'm sorry...I just don't remember you." Zero said to Axl. Axl's face, filled with hero-worship, deflated then. "Oh...I see...I bet you would remember this then!" Axl said, as he pulled out a wallet.

He opened it, and handed it to Zero, pointing at a picture. In it, several Reploids were gathered in close, all smiling, save one, who was looking completely deranged Axl....probably, they look alike, unless that's an earlier model of him...

He saw in the picture, a red and white Reploid smiling too innocently while holding two fingers upraised and in a V shape behind the head of one that looked like a Commander of some sort. Zero stared a bit more closely at that red and white one...he could see long blond hair behind that one's head, like a ponytail, similar to his, if slightly longer and fuller. is that......me?

He continued his gaze, until his eyes fell upon a Reploid of two shades of blue, with green eyes, and a charismatic smile. He somehow could immediately name that one. "X." he said to himself. "yep...I see you remember him." Axl said. Axl then began to name each Reploid in the picture..."That one that looks like a commander, that's Signas...then that lady next to him is Alya..then the kinda stocky green one is Douglas, then there me, goofing off like I used to I KNEW IT!, before....gah, forget it, there is X, just above me, he was holding my hair to keep me from running off toward the cake, then there is you, next to X, in the red and white....your hair was longer and fuller back then....but you had breast lights.....weird.....moving on....that's Gamma, Zeta's previous version." Axl said. By then, Ciel had gotten a med team to arrive, and they had taken the stunned human to the bases med bay. Zero and Axl, plus Zeta behind them, moving backwards to fend off any attacks on them, followed Ciel and the med team, soon also arriving in the base.


	3. The Green Wind, and an Omen

(I do not own Megaman Zero, or anything related to Gundam......or anything that has been developed by someone other than myself.....credit for Project Ezekiel goes to the unnamed group.....you know who you are guys!)

Chapter 3

The Green Wind, and an Omen

Zero watched the human, as Ciel adjusted the restraints one more time. "Are you sure about this?" Zero asked her. "Yes, we need to get information on who he is and why he attacked us....and then we can hold him till someone comes looking for him." Ciel said. She poked him hard, showtime

"....uuhhh.......wha-?" the human uttered dimly.

"Do you think we should procede with the interrogation now?" Zero asked Ciel, getting into the role of good cop. Ciel, wearing a black mask of metal with a red lensed visor turned toward him, and a black cloak with a metal frame undernieth to add a spiked shoulder look, looked at him, then the human, before a mechanical, evil sounding voice said, "Give him the works...and make it EXTRA painful....I like to break my meals first...."

The human's eyes grew massive at the thought. "NO! I'LL TELL YOU ANYTHING!" the human said.

Zero and Ciel looked at eachother. "Anything?" Zero said. The human nodded affirmatively......

An Hour later....

"Zero.....here, take this......it was yours from when you were a Maverick Hunter." Axl said to Zero, handing him something in a box. Zero opened it.

He saw a strange pendant in it, on a chain.

"You always wore that under your armor, so no one ever saw it, but the day you fell.....It dropped, so I took it and put it away for safekeeping. I never tried it on or anything, I respected you enough to not do that, even if you only thought of me as an annoying kid who was constantly getting in the way around the base, and always getting into trouble in missions." Axl said, looking down at the floor.

Zero could remember something about Axl then......enough to be certain of his next statement.

"I can remember enough about you....to be certain....you were NEVER just some annoying kid who got in the way. Sure, you did get into some scrapes...but you seem to have come out on top." Zero said.

"Is there anything else you can remember about your past?" Axl asked.

"....ugh......No...I can't seem to remember even how I know that about you...I just knew...." Zero said.

"Don't worry about it, I am sure you will regain your memories in time." Axl said. "........alright." Zero replyed.

"Lets get moving guys, there itsn't much time before they are on the move again, and we don't want to be late for the rondoveeeeuis.....or however its pronounced." Zeta said, with a shrug. "Roger that.....wait, where is Ciel?" Zero asked.

"Right here."

They turned, and saw Ciel standing in the doorway, laden with scientific equipment.

"Hm.....lookin' good, Ms. Ciel." Zeta said, earning him a sharp look from Zero. "Its Doctor, actually." Ciel corrected.

"Anyway....lets get on the move." Ciel said, all of them entering the transport that they had.....borrowed from a Neo Arcadia base a few weeks ago.

Once they arrived in the area of ops.....

"Alright, now....you guys get conceiled, and if it gets messy, I will be counting on you to help get our contact and I out of there." Ciel said to them. "Roger that, Dr." Zero said, the other Reploids nodding confirmation of the orders.

The Reploids slipped out of the car, and into the shrubery on the side of the park in the outskirts around the base of the orbital elevator that leads to Neo Arcadia.

The car, driven by Ciel, rolled further into the park, now in line of sight of their contact. Ciel parked the car next to the bench the contact was sitting on. She climbed out of the car, brushing hair out of her eyes.

"Ah....its you. I am glad to see you again." Dr. Ciel said, looking at his sister. "It's good to see you too, brother. Do you have the info?" Doctor Artesia Ciel asked her brother. "Yes, I have it in his disc." Doctor Casval Ciel told his sister.

They both felt something...."Odd, I did not think they would be here so soon....its almost like they knew we would meet here." Casval said.

Zero tensed up, ready to fight. Axl drew his Beam Magnums, and Zeta powered up his Beam Rifle.

"Doctors Artesia and Casval Ciel, siblings who were born within minutes of each other.....and are both Confirmed Newtypes.......Together again......how so very sweet.....and tragic." a calm voice, familiar to them both said behind them.

They turned and saw Harpuia, the Sage, standing there, watching them with green, inteligent eyes.

Casval looked to his left, and saw a large contigent of X-Drone Gunners waiting for the order to fire.

"I am only here for the data, Doctors.............and........I only need a copy.......I need to confirm something." Harpuia said to them. He gestured with a green left hand toward the X-Drones.

"They are only here to keep a new threat away from the both of you....................hm............Zero................" Harpuia said, looking toward where he saw a red flash for a moment, then looking up calmly as Zero decended from the sky above, with his saber poised to drive into Harpuia. He swung, just as Harpuia lept up to greet him, and Harpuia brough both of his redish beam knives up in an x-cross infront of their wielder, to block the saber of Zero. "I only came for the data....there is no need to fight today." Harpuia said to Zero calmly. "......hm..." Zero said, and they fell the the ground, landing upright and standing infront of each other.

"Oh...really?" Zero asked.

"Yes, and only a copy. I need to confirm something about Master X." the Sage said to Zero.

"X?"

"Yes Zero, and, both of you Resistance soldiers can come out now....I could see you from a mile away." Harpuia said to Axl and Zeta. "How did you-?" Axl began to ask. "Simple, your color scemes were not optimal for conceilment.....bright colors......you should have gone with the normal resistance soldiers colors.....you could have remained hidden for some time longer, I would have to admit." Harpuia told them.

"Casval.....give Harpuia a copy of the data." Artesia said to her brother.

He looked at her for a moment, then knew that it would actually be for the best. "Harpuia, do you mind if we just insert the disc in your built in CD-ROM?" Casval asked. "I would not mind at all." Harpuia said, as a slot in the back of his head opened.

Casval inserted the disc, and a few seconds later, it came out, and he took it back, putting it in the case he had been carrying it in.

"I thank you for your cooporation...and for your help, I will reward you with some information of my own." Harpuia said to them.

"Zero, come here for a moment." the Sage told Zero.

Zero somehow knew that he could trust the Sage, and he came to him.

"Here, take this disc......it has some of your memories.....I managed to get them, from a certain friend of yours...........someone I know of as my master.........what you do with it is up to you, but......it is time that we learn to work together, for a new threat is rising.......with the rebirth of an old enemy, one of whom you may know of at some point, if you use the disc." Harpuia said to Zero, handing him a disc. "Fefnir and Leviathan send their regards. Now...I must away." Harpuia said the Zero, turning to the Doctors. "It is time for me to go now...but...we will meet again, before thedn, I feel.....it was nice to see both of you together once again. Take care of yourselves." Harpuia said to the sibling Doctors, saluting them both, then Zero, before turning to his troops....

"All units, return to base immediately." the Sage told the X-Drones, who complied, and teleported out. Harpuia wistled a short tune of some sort, that sounded familliar to Zero somehow......a Reploid modeled after some kind of flight-capable animal came to Harpuia, and allowed him to get seated atop it. It rose, and he regarded them all as a group, one more time, before in a flash of green wind, he vanished.

Zero glanced at the disc in his hands....

He looked up at the sky, where the Sage, Harpuia had vanished....

"...............X....."


End file.
